Internet Sites
Updated: August 29, 2008 (Added
Montevideo Maru Foundation)
Sites containing information concerning
POWs of the Japanese:
- American Battle Monuments
Commission This link goes directly to the ABMC page used to search
for a World War II POW by name. Enter the last name first and DO NOT use
any commas. If you do not find the POW listed, it may be because the
name is not listed as you typed it. Try leaving out the middle name or
initial, and if necessary, change the spelling to a similar name spelled
slightly differently. Names are in the database as they were recorded
after World War II and they may not be 100% correct according to family
records. Click here - ABMC -
to get the main American Battle
Monuments Commission web site.
- American Defenders Of Bataan and Corregidor (ADBC) Web Site
This site has a vast amount of information. Try using the "Pico Search"
feature that you will find close to the bottom of the main page to find
information on a specific subject.
- American Ex-Prisoners of War Organization
This site contains a wide variety of information that can be of assistance to
former POWS and to their family members. See the main page of
information about membership and services available.
- Bataan
Commemorative Research Project This excellent site by the Proviso East
High School, IL gives information about the 192nd Tank Bn. including rosters
of members of that unit.
- Bataan-Corregidor Memorial
Foundation of New Mexico, Inc. This site and the memorial (which was
dedicated on April 7, 2002) are in honor of the men of the 200th and 515th CA
(AA) Regiments. The site includes a list of the men in those two
regiments.
-
Battling Bastards of Bataan The home page of this site contains a
photo of the Camp O'Donnell Memorial Monument in Capas, Tarlac, PI.
-
Burma Thailand Railway This
site includes information about the Burma Thailand Railway (also known as the
Thailand-Burma Railway, the Burma Railway or the Death Railway). Look in
the left column and click on "Camp Lists" to get a complete list of POW camps
along the 415-Km route of the railway. See
Thailand Burma Railway for another
site on this subject. Roger Mansell's "Center for Research, Allied POWs
under the Japanese" (listed after this) also has a list of of the POW camps on
the railway - see his
Death Railway link.
- Center
for Research, Allied POWs under the Japanese Roger Mansell has
information related to Japanese POW Camps throughout the Far East - including photos and links to other web
pages. To get a complete list of POW Camps, begin your visit to this
site by clicking on the word "links" in the first sentence of the first box.
Then check out other parts of this site as your interests take you.
- China Marines - Fourth
Marines Band Follow the links close to the bottom on the main page
for much more information. This site complements the site below labeled
"Fourth Marine Regiment."
- C.O.F.E.P.O.W. The
initials stand for "Children (& families) of Far East Prisoners of War."
This site is an excellent resource for information concerning British,
Australian, New Zealand and Dutch POWs of the Japanese. Note also the "FEPOW
Community" and "Researching FEPOW History" sites listed below.
- Corregidor
This site has much information about Corregidor and the related island forts
involved in the defensive plan for Manila Bay.
- FEPOW Community
This British site, and the links it provides, will be of assistance to many
people searching for information about a British, Australian, New Zealand or
Netherlands POW of the Japanese. Note also the "C.O.F.E.P.O.W." site
listed above and the "Researching FEPOW History" site listed below.
- Fourth Marine Regiment
Use this site for information about the 4th Marines from before World War II,
to Corregidor and through their time as POWs.
- Fourth Marines
Site by Jack Turner This site includes several rosters that give the
status of members of the 4th Marines as well as links to other items of
interest concerning the 4th Marine Regiment.
- Fukuoka #17
This excellent Lewiston, Idaho school project includes a roster of POWs at
Fukuoka #17 (Omuta).
-
Index to Roper Research Materials Anyone planning a trip to the National Archives
should review Dick Roper's "List of Records in Numerical Order" and his
"Diaries, Official Record & Press Releases" before leaving home. You can
make notes about the Box Numbers that contain information you want to see.
This should make your visit to the National Archives more efficient and more
productive.
- Manila American
Cemetery and Memorial This link is to a ".pdf" file that requires Acrobat Reader
(free) to download. It is a large file, but it is worth the effort.
There is a complete description of the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial
including photos, drawings and the text of inscriptions.
- Mark Kelso's Oryoku Maru Web Site Mark Kelso constructed this page as a memorial to his Grandfather, Lt. Walter
A. Kelso, Jr. It contains very detailed descriptions of the voyage that
began at Manila on December 13, 1944 when 1,619 POWs were loaded into the
cargo holds of the Oryoku Maru and ended at Moji, Kyushu, Japan on January 30,
1945 when about 400 survivors were unloaded from the holds of the Brazil Maru.
What happened during that series of voyages is the also subject of several
books listed in the "Publications" page of this web site.
- Montevideo Maru Foundation
This web page is being established to help increase public awareness of
"Australia’s Greatest Maritime Disaster" (the sinking of the Montevideo Maru
on July 1, 1942 northwest of Cape Bojeador, Luzon by the USS Sturgeon
resulting in the death of all 1,053 POWs on board) and garner support for a
search to locate the wreck where so many Australian men lie forgotten.
-
Mukden Prisoner Of War Remembrance
Society (MPOWRS)
This relatively new site (as of June 2008) is devoted to POWs
that were in camps in the Mukden area. It has information about the new
Mukden Allied Prisoners of War Camp Memorial Museum. As of June 2008, this
site is still being developed, so you may want to check back to see new
additions.
-
Museum of Japanese Merchant
Ships This Japanese language site contains photographs and paintings of
a number of Japanese
merchant ships that were sunk. This index page will take you to lists of ships that were
lost in a particular year. In the center of each line you will see a
two-digit number in the midst of the Japanese characters. The line with
"16" in it leads to a page with ships lost in 1941. Likewise, "17" is
for 1942, "18" is for 1943, "19" is for 1944 and "20" is for 1945. The
entries for "18" (1943) and "19" (1944) are subdivided. "1-6"
and "7-12" indicate the first and last six months of 1943. Similarly, "19"
(1944) is divided into quarters. By knowing when a ship was lost, you can find the
image. For instance, the Oryoku Maru was attacked on December 14 and
15, 1944. Click the line containing "19" and "10-12" on the
index page to get a page with "thumbnail" photos of ships lost in Oct-Dec, 1944.
The photos have a caption with a four-digit number giving the month and day the ship
was lost. Click the caption with "1214" to get the painting of the Oryoku Maru.
The URL address will also display the ship's name but it may be misspelled in
English. If you want to read the
Japanese wording, several free on-line translators can give a very
rough translation. I think it may be best to leave the translation to
the experts.
-
National Archives (NARA) Access to the Archival Database (AAD)
This link goes directly to the "Fielded Search" page for the World War II
Prisoners of War Data File. Click the following link for information that is designed to assist you in
navigating this site. It may help to make a copy of this
information to use when you search on the NARA AAD site.
NARA Information
In November 2006, NARA posted another database that is supplementary to their
World War II Prisoners of War Data File. This database was developed by
a team of volunteers, each of whom is a descendant of a POW of the Japanese,
working on behalf of the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor. It
provides information about the military unit of POWs prior to their surrender
and gives additional information about POW camps when that information was
available. Click on
Military Units to see the "Fielded Search" page for this database.
It is in the same format as the World War II Prisoners of War Data File, so
the same instructions apply.
To get the main AAD page so you can search a different file, click this link -
http://aad.archives.gov/aad/index.jsp.
-
National Personnel Records Center, St. Louis, MO Use this site
to obtain military records of a veteran or to obtain awards and decorations
(medals). Necessary instructions are on the main page of this web site.
-
New Zealand Military
History This site may be of assistance to people searching for
information about New Zealand POWs of the Japanese.
-
North China Marines
This site has a lot of
information for anyone interested in the "North China Marines."
- Oryoku Maru On-line
This excellent site has an account of the Oryoku Maru/Enoura Maru/Brazil Maru
series of voyages and related information.
- Philippine Scouts
Heritage Society This site has many articles containing information
about the men and the units of the Philippine Scouts.
- POW Research
Network Japan This site was set up to provide histories of POW Camps in
Japan. It includes records of POWs from the United States, Great
Britain, The Netherlands, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India and Pakistan
that were buried in Japan or whose cremations are memorialized there.
To find the cause of death of a POW that died in a camp
in Japan, open the site, click on "The Record of Deceased POWs", on the
next page click on "List by Camp" and on the next page click on "Open" to the
right of the camp name. The file is large and the printing is small, but
there is a magnifying feature on the tool that will allow you to increase the
size to make easy reading.
- POW/INTERNMENT
CAMPS IN ASIA DURING WWII This interesting site allows people to
register names associated with various POW Camps and Internment Camps and
contact others that are registered.
- Prisoners
of War of the Japanese As of 08/19/2008, this
link is "broken" - waiting for new link.
Jim Erickson is constructing this site. Already it has much valuable
information about the Hellships, including rosters, and Jim will be adding
more. For those that do not know Jim Erickson, I will just say that he
does outstanding research and you can rely on the information he posts.
- Researching FEPOW
History This site is located in the UK and has the aim of organizing
bi-annual conferences to aid those who are researching the experiences of
ex-Far Eastern prisoners of war or internees. The links contained on
this site will help persons looking for information concerning UK POWs of the
Japanese. Note also the "C.O.F.E.P.O.W." and "FEPOW Community" sites
listed above.
- Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society
This site has information on POW Camps on Taiwan (Formosa).
- Thailand Burma Railway - see "Burma Thailand Railway" above.
- The Fall of the
Philippines This site contains the text of "The Fall of the
Philippines" by Louis Morton. It is part of a series of books produced
by the U.S. Army Center of Military History. After you enter this site,
you can move to the portion of interest to you by clicking on a chapter or a
section within a chapter.
- US-Japan Dialogue on POWs
This bilingual website is an effort to recognize
the sacrifice of American POWs captured by the Japanese military during WWII.
It also seeks to promote dialogue between people of the United States and
Japan on related issues.
-
Wes Injerd's Web Site
on POW Camps in Japan This
site has a vast amount of information about POW Camps in Japan plus links to
other related information. Wes recently (February 3, 2003) informed me
that Robert S. LaForte has donated his entire collection of over 800 volumes
and over 200 interviews of POWs of Japan to the University of North Texas
Archives. Wes has posted a link to a list of these volumes on page 8 of
this web site. You can go directly to the list by clicking on
LaForte.
Wes just informed me (02/12/2003) that he has posted a chart showing the
history of all POW Camps in Japan. To see that site, click
CHART.